“When she’s in Cairo and she’s having these exchanges, she’s a widow. She’s probably in her fifties. Her son is with her, and he’s working as a secretary for the Sultan, and she’s living in the quarters of a family friend with his wife. Certainly somebody’s going to take exception, you’re always going to have conservative elements, but we don’t know of it.”
“Being naturally bilingual, you already inhabit this in-between kind of space. And hearing my poetry in my mother tongue, it feels very different.”
“In 2017, The Open Door still makes a thrilling romantic read about finding a feminist lover in an anti-feminist world, while also asking: How does one find the rediscover one’s authentic childhood self as an adult? And how, in this world of injustices, does one productively resist?”
“She felt ashamed, then disgusted, then hatred for her defiled body. She wished she could exact revenge on them all, herself included.”
August is Women in Translation month. Eight to read or put on your to-read list.
“Bakr also critiqued the representation of women in literature, criticizing both men and women authors for failing to write good female characters.”
“I did not find Saniya Saleh in Cairo.”
“I don’t find that history is a science of the past. To me, it is the science of the future.”
Miss the literary events at Shubbak? Can’t wait until July 2019? Listen to the recordings.
